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ISSN 0214 - 9915 CODEN PSOTEG

Copyright 2012 Psicothema

www.psicothema.com

Psychological values as protective factors against sexist attitudes

in preadolescents

Marta Ferragut, Mara Jos Blanca and Margarita Ortiz-TalloUniversidad de Mlaga

Sexism is considered one of the chief variables that maintains

sex inequalities (Moya, 2004), and it can even be a precursor

of domestic violence. Glick and Fiske (2001) underline two

differentiated forms of sexism that coexist in contemporary

society: hostile sexism and benevolent sexism. Hostile sexism

reflects beliefs about women that consider them an inferior group,

with negative stereotypes that foment discrimination. Benevolentsexism refers to beliefs about women considered a group that

must be protected because they are weak. Numerous studies

provide results about gender differences in hostile sexism, where

men score higher than women. However, when studying gender

differences in benevolent sexism, there are discrepancies. Some

authors, like Glick and Fiske (1996), found significant differences

between men and women in five out of the six studies presented,

with higher scores in the men in this variable. Other authors

found significant differences, with women scoring higher (Lemus,

Castillo, Moya, Padilla, & Ryan, 2008). There are also studies that

have either found differences or no differences, depending on age

(Garaigordobil & Aliri, 2011). And lastly, some works have foundno significant differences in this variable (Ferragut, Ortiz-Tallo,

& Blanca, 2011). Thus, benevolent sexism emerges as a complex

variable that deserves more scientific contributions.

Diverse investigations have clearly established the relation

between beliefs and attitudes towards violence (cognitive

and affective components) and discriminatory behaviors and

perpetration of violence (behavioral component) (Carrin, 2010;

Daz-Aguado, 2002, 2004). Women usually present significantly

lower values in sexist attitudes and attitudes of justification

of violence, whereas men have significantly higher values in

authoritarianism (Daz-Aguado, Martnez Arias, & Martn Seoane,

2004).

Abstract Resumen

Background: Sexist attitudes are one of the factors that justify domestic

violence. Positive psychology can provide keys to prevent sexist violence at

an early age. Psychological values are a group of psychological strengths in

a persons development. They provide important clues for the prevention of

gender-based violence. Method: This study presents an assessment of two

groups of variables, sexist attitudes and beliefs and psychological values,

in a sample of 449 (213 boys and 236 girls) preadolescents from various

schools (mean age: 12). We analyze the relationship between these variables.

We used the Values in Action Inventory (VIA-Y), the Questionnaire of

Attitudes towards Diversity and Violence (CADV) and the Ambivalent

Sexism Inventory (ASI). Results: The results show that sexism variables

are related to each other and negatively to the psychological values in boys

and girls. Conclusions: We discuss the importance of prevention programs

being appropriately developed and, probably, different programs for each

sex.

Keywords: sexism, psychological values, prevention of domestic violence,

positive psychology, adolescents.

Valores psicolgicos como factores de proteccin ante actitudes sexistas

en preadolescentes. Antecedentes: el sexismo y las actitudes sexistas son

algunos de los factores precursores de la justificacin de la violencia de

pareja. La psicologa positiva puede aportar claves al estudio y prevencin

de la violencia sexista en edades tempranas. Los valores psicolgicos, como

conjunto de fortalezas psicolgicas para el desarrollo de la persona, aportan

pistas importantes en la prevencin de la violencia sexista. Mtodo: este

estudio presenta una evaluacin de dos conjuntos de variables, por un lado,

las actitudes y creencias sexistas y, por otro, los valores psicolgicos en

una muestra de 449 estudiantes preadolescentes (213 chicos y 236 chicas)

de diversos centros escolares (edad media: 12 aos), para posteriormente

analizar la relacin entre dichas variables. Se ha utilizado para la recogida

de datos el Values in Action Inventory (VIA-Y), el Cuestionario de

Actitudes hacia la Diversidad y la Violencia (CADV) y el Inventario de

Sexismo Ambivalente (ISA). Resultados: los resultados muestran que

las variables de sexismo se relacionan entre s y de forma inversa con los

valores psicolgicos, tanto en los chicos como en las chicas. Conclusiones:

se comenta su importancia para el desarrollo de programas de prevencinque pudieran ser diferenciados para ambos sexos.

Palabras clave: sexismo, valores psicolgicos, prevencin violencia

domstica, psicologa positiva, preadolescentes.

Psicothema 2013, Vol. 25, No. 1, 38-42

doi: 10.7334/psicothema2012.85

Received: March 20, 2012 Accepted: June 11, 2012

Corresponding author: Marta Ferragut

Facultad de Psicologa

Universidad de Mlaga

29071 Mlaga (Spain)

e-mail: mferragut@uma.es

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Psychological values as protective factors against sexist attitudes in preadolescents

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In the study carried out by Viniegra (2007) with the questionnaire

Actitudes hacia la Diversidad y la Violencia (CADV; in English,

Attitudes towards Diversity and Violence), girls expressed less

agreement than boys with intolerant beliefs and justification of

violence. Similarly, Daz-Aguado (2004), in an investigation for

the Instituto de la Mujer (Womens Institute), found that boys

justify violence more than girls. In contrast, girls obtain higherscores in the rejection of violence and sexist beliefs (Daz-Aguado,

2003).

Alternatively, Positive Psychology is based on the values and

psychological strengths that are also essential in the study of the

problems of the human being. Peterson and Seligman (2004)

focused on the study of these values and strengths that favor

peoples growth. These authors propose a classification into six

essential values that are divided into 24 strengths, understood as a

series of positive traits reflected in thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

These six values are: wisdom and knowledge, courage, humanity,

justice, temperance, and transcendence. Psychological values are

essential for peoples development and of particular importance

during developmental stages such as preadolescence. In this sense,

they may protect youngsters from negative aspects such as sexism

and violence during this stage.

However, despite the growing interest in the research of positive

psychology, there is very little bibliography in the scientific

literature about this essential stage of development, as well as

about its relation with sexist attitudes and violence.

Some investigations have related sexism and attitudes towards

violence to specific psychological strengths, for example, the work

of Wellman, Czopp and Geers (2009), in which, along with the aim

of egalitarian goals, the strength of hope is noted as a key factor

to deal with prejudice. With regard to the strengths included in the

value temperance, Vohs, Finkenauer, and Baumeister (2011) found

a positive relation with the quality of the dating relation, whereas

Finkel et al., (2009) suggest that a defi

cit in self-regulation may berelated to the perpetration of gender violence by young people.

In recent years, numerous investigations have been carried out

in Spain and important efforts have been made to study the diverse

factors related to couple violence, sexism, and violent attitudes in

adults (Andrs-Pueyo & Echebura, 2010; Echebura, Sarasua,

Zubizarreta, & de Corral, 2009; Fernndez-Montalvo & Echebura,

2008; Ferrer, Bosch, Ramis, Torres, & Navarro, 2006; Lonaz, Ortiz-

Tallo, Snchez, & Ferragut, 2011; Ortiz-Tallo, Cardenal, Blanca,

Snchez, & Morales, 2007; Ortiz-Tallo, Fierro, Blanca, Cardenal,

& Snchez, 2006). Most of the research in the field of psychology

positive and psychological values was conducted with adult

population and, to a lesser degree, with adolescents (Zubieta, 2008).

However, few investigations have studied the relation between

the positive aspects of the human beingsuch as psychologicalvaluesthat could serve as protection and prevention factors

against sexist attitudes and beliefs. The relation between these

variables could have an impact on future programs of prevention of

domestic violence. Preadolescence is a crucial age in the formation

of attitudes and beliefs that are consolidated throughout life.

Previous studies have found gender differences in these variables

at this stage of development (Ferragut, Ortiz-Tallo, & Blanca,

2011; Garaigordobil & Aliri, 2011; Karris, 2009; Shimai, Otake,

Park, Peterson, & Seligman, 2004; Viniegra, 2007), which leads us

to differentiate boys and girls in the present study.

Thus, the main goal of study is to analyze the relation between

two sets of variables: on the one hand, sexist attitudes and beliefs

and, on the other, psychological values, differentiating between

preadolescent boys and girls.

Method

Participants

In this study, there were 449 participants (213 boys and 236

girls) from the first grade of Compulsory Secondary Education,

aged between 11 and 13 years (M= 12.14, SD= 0.51), belonging

to 27 classrooms of 8 public schools of Malaga (capital city) and

province.

With regard to the participants family situation, 84.7% of the

sample has siblings, and of them, 47.4% has a single sibling. Of

the sample of children, 72.8% live with their family of origin, that

is, parents and siblings, 10.8% live with their mother and siblings,

and 5.6% live in reconstructed families, that is, with the parents

new partner. With regard to the country of origin, 83.4% of the

sample is of Spanish nationality, and the rest belong to 21 different

nationalities.

Instruments

To assess sexism, we administered the Inventario de Sexismo

Ambivalente para adolescentes (ISA, in English, the Ambivalent

Sexism Inventory for adolescences; Lemus et al., 2008). It has

20 items that are rated on a 6-point Likert-type response format,

ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 6 (Strongly agree). The

questionnaire yields a total score of sexism and two scores in the

following factors: hostile sexism (reflecting negative attitudes

towards women) and benevolent sexism (reflecting protective

attitudes towards women, who are stereotyped and undervalued).

In the general scale, a Cronbach reliability coefficient of= .83

was obtained, for hostile sexism,

= .84, and for benevolentsexism, = .77.

To assess attitudes towards violence, we administered the

"Cuestionario de Actitudes hacia la Diversidad y la Violencia"

(CADV, In English, the Questionnaire of Attitudes towards

Diversity and Violence; Daz-Aguado & Martnez Arias, 2004).

This questionnaire has 56 items and is rated on a 7-point Likert-

type response format, ranging from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 7

(Strongly agree). It provides scores in four factors. The present

study focuses on the factor called Sexist beliefs and justification of

domestic violence, in view of our proposed goals. This factor had

good internal consistency, with = .85.

Lastly, to assess psychological strengths, we used the Values

in Action for Youth (VIA-Y; Park & Peterson, 2006). It has 198

items and is rated on a 5-point Likert-type response format,ranging from 1 (Very different from me) to 5 (Very like me). We

used the Spanish adaptation of Vzquez and Hervs (2007). This

questionnaire assesses 24 psychological strengths that are grouped

into the following six values with scores that range between 1 and

5 points: (a) Wisdom and knowledge (which include the strengths

of creativity, curiosity, love of learning, open-mindedness, and

perspective); (b) Courage (which includes bravery, persistence,

authenticity, and zest); (c) Humanity (which implies love, kindness,

and social intelligence); (d) Justice (in which are found teamwork,

fairness, and leadership); (e) Temperance (which includes

forgiveness, modesty, prudence, and self-regulation); and (f)

Transcendence (which includes appreciation of beauty, gratitude,

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hope, humor, and relogiousness). The internal consistency of

questionnaire ranges between the values of= .72 and = .91 for

the diverse scales of the questionnaire.

Procedure

The investigators informed the school directors and the school

parents association about the goals of the study and the procedure

to be followed. The schools that accepted to participate in the

investigation were in charge of requesting the parents informed

consent.

The data were collected during the first trimester of the course

2010-2011 in two 1-hour sessions. This data collection was

proposed as an anonymous and voluntary group activity in the

schools.The students collectively filled out the numbered tests in their

classrooms, during their normal class schedules.

Data analysis

We performed Students t-test for the comparison of means of

independent samples in order to analyze gender differences in the

scores, and the corresponding measures of effect size by means of

Cohens dfor each variable.

Subsequently, we conducted a canonical correlational

analysis for each gender. The first set of variables was made up

of Hostile sexism, Benevolent sexism, and Sexist beliefs and

justification of domestic violence. The second set was made up

of the 6 Psychological values: Wisdom and knowledge, Courage,Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence.

Results

The comparison of means for gender differences was significant

for each one of the variables studied, showing that the girls obtained

higher scores in all six psychological values and lower scores in the

variables that make up sexism. The effect size observed was small

in most of the variables. This information is presented in Table 1.

Using Wilks criterion, the canonical correlational analysis for

the girls yielded the first statistically significant canonical variable,

F(18, 642)= 4.01, p

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Discussion

The goal of this study was to analyze the relation between two

groups of variables, sexism on the one hand, and psychological

values on the other, in groups of preadolescent boys and girls.

In the results,firstly, significant gender differences were obtained

in all the variables studied, as expected. The girls express a lower

degree of agreement with sexist attitudes and hostile sexism. Other

studies of adolescents have systematically found this same result

(Glick & Fiske, 1996; Lemus et al., 2008). Likewise, in the present

work, the preadolescent girls also scored lower than the boys

in benevolent sexism. In this sample, the boys expressed more

agreement with stereotyped beliefs about women that consider

them as belonging to a group that should be protected; the opposite

was observed in preadolescent girls.

Regarding the psychological values, at this age, the girls

present signifi

cantly higher means than the boys in all six valuesanalyzed. This result is congruent with data from diverse previous

investigations that analyze the strengths, and it is a common

constant in several countries (Ferragut, Ortiz-Tallo, & Blanca,

2011; Gimnez, 2009; Park & Peterson, 2003; Shimai et al.,

2006).

Thus, sexist attitudes differentiated between boys and girls at

very early ages, so that, already in secondary school, boys display

more negative attitudes towards women than girls. These boys also

present fewer positive traits in comparison to the girls, obtaining

lower scores in the psychological values.

The results of this study also show that sexist variables are

related to each other, and inversely to the psychological values.

This occurs both in the group of boys and of girls. Within this

context, we can state that the psychological values are involved in

the formation of sexist beliefs and attitudes. There are no studies of

this aspect that provide evidence of this relation. Other authors have

investigated the aspects that differentiate boys and girls, findingthat the relational aspect of sexism differentiates the genders and is

involved in sexist beliefs (Garca et al., 2010).

In the canonical correlational analysis, we observed in the girls

that the variable with the greatest weight in the set of sexist variables

was hostile sexism. In the psychological values, the variable with

the greatest loading was humanity. That is, in the group of girls, the

development of psychological values, especially those that include

approaching others, empathy, and knowledge of social situations,

is inversely related to the development of attitudes of rejection of

women, considering them inferior, and in a stereotyped way.

But in the group of boys, the variable from the first set with

the greatest loading is sexist beliefs and justification of domestic

violence, and from the second set, the value of transcendence.

Thus, sexist beliefs that justify violence towards women are related

to a lower capacity of gratitude, hope, humor, or religiousness (the

transcendence value).

Studies of the psychological strengths and values have related

them with variables such as well-being, satisfaction, or even with

psychopathology, such as depression or stress (Gimnez, 2010;

Park & Peterson, 2009), in which these variables always emerge as

predictors of psychological health.

In this sense, preadolescents who have high scores in the

psychological values show less sexist attitudes towards women.

Considering these data, we can state that, in the study of sexist

attitudes, education in psychological values should be taken

into account as a preventive measure. Moreover, it would also

be interesting to focus on support or intervention, especially inmales.

This study is part of a longitudinal research project to study

the variables presented herein throughout secondary education.

Thus, we will attempt to progressively solve some of the current

limitations. We think it would be interesting to study the evolution

of these data during adolescence. Future research could have the

goals of expanding the number of participants, and including

different ages. Lastly, it would be relevant to carry out interventions

in the psychological values and to observe whether changes are

produced in the variables related to sexism.

Table 3

Correlations of the canonical variables with the original variables from thefirst

and second sets in the group of boys

Variables Loadings

First set

Hostile sexismBenevolent sexism

Sexist beliefs and justification of domestic violence

-.58-.35

-.98

Second set

Wisdom and knowledge

Courage

Humanity

Justice

Temperance

Transcendence

.89

.86

.69

.63

.72

.90

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